


Midgard is a strange place

by Elf_in_shoppingcart



Category: DCU, Thor (Movies), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Batman POV, Gen, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki (Marvel)-centric, Magic, Multiverse, No Romance, Other Characters Are Mentioned, POV Loki (Marvel), Tags May Change, Teenager Loki, but not important enough to be tagged, other characters will come in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 16,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23913706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elf_in_shoppingcart/pseuds/Elf_in_shoppingcart
Summary: What if Loki didn't try to ruin Thor's coronation? What if he didn't let go and was instead pushed off the Bifrost. What if the void is a gateway to another universe?Loki is pushed into the void by the person that ruined Thor's coronation. Instead of landing in the hands of Thanos, he land's in a different universe. where does he land you ask? In a city called Gotham.Most of the characters tagged will show up later in the story.I do not own any of these characters.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 176





	1. Thor's return

**Author's Note:**

> In this fic, the age gap between Thor and Loki is larger so when Thor's coronation comes around, Loki isn't the one who ruined it. Loki is still young so he hasn't had enough time for his jealousy to grow. Everything else happens the same, they go to Jotunheim, and Loki finds out what he is. Everything else pretty much stays the same.
> 
> This is my first fic ever! Hope you like it.
> 
> (I rated this Teen and up because the characters are teenagers and teenagers swear sometimes. And I'm paranoid. Nothing too bed really happens) 
> 
> Thor is about 23 years old in human years (1500 in Asgardian.
> 
> Loki is 14 or 15 in human years (1050 in Asgardian)
> 
> I don't really care if it's not mathematically accurate. I didn't do the math I just made up some numbers!

The swirling colors of the rainbow bridge glow in contrast to the dark and empty void below it. Loki could see the Bifrost light up as he ran across the bridge. He was halfway across the bridge when the Warriors Three and Lady Sif walked out. By the time he reached the observatory, Thor was there and as soon as he stepped out on to the bridge, he was hit with thin arms wrapped around his stomach. As soon as he realized it was Loki that was hugging him he hugged back just as fiercely. It was a rare occurrence for the young prince to show any kind of physical affection so this meant that he had truly been missed. Warriors Three were just standing awkwardly by the side of the bridge watching the two brothers reunite. When Volstag’s stomach grumbled it reminded Loki that they had an audience and he immediately pulled back. He nodded his head to Lady Sif and the Warriors Three in acknowledgment and looked back to his brother. 

“Brother! How are you back? Is your banishment over?” Loki asked as they started to walk back to Serenity, Asgard's capital. Thor and Loki walked side-by-side and the Warriors Three were three steps behind them as their station required them to be at least three steps ahead of all others except the king and queen. 

“Aye brother, I am once again worthy of my hammer. How are mother and father? Is father still in the Odinsleep? Is Mother acting as regent?” Thor asked.

“Mother knows not when father will awaken from his sleep but for now, she is sitting on the throne. We have been worried for you, Thor. I'm sorry we could not have brought you back, mother said she could not undo the last order of the Allfather” Loki said. He was looking down at his feet and avoiding eye contact with his brother.

“It is alright little brother, I know you would bring me back if you could. Now let us leave behind this melancholy, I need to talk to the queー” before Thor could finish his sentence, a power full yet uncontrolled blast of seiðr hit the two princes.

Loki, even at such a young age was one of the most powerful seiðr** masters in all of the nine realms. He quickly threw a shield around them so they wouldn't be blasted off the bridge. The light from the blasts had momentarily blinded all of them but once their vision cleared they could see Eerika Snorridóttir, the daughter of one the members of the Curia Regis*, the royal council standing before them.

Even with the shield up they still stumbled a little bit. Once he had regained his footing Thor turned to Eerika. “Eerika? What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. Before anyone could get another word in, Eerika starts to whisper something. Everyone leaned in a little bit to hear what she was saying and immediately Loki knew that this meant trouble. To everyone who wasn't a seiðr master, this would sound extremely weird. Thor, lady Sif, and the Warriors Three could hear what she was whispering but as soon as she moved on to the next word they could not recall what she said before. It was like the words were made of water, flowing in one ear and going out the other. 

To Loki, this sounded like any other language, and he's been speaking this one for as long as he could remember. As soon as he figured out which spell she was using he started working on a counterspell because if he didn't, things could end badly. He didn't mutter any words, he didn't whisper. He didn't need to. The more powerful your seiðr is, the less words you need to say to cast a spell. For him only extremely powerful spells needed words. Even as powerful as he is, Eerika has more experience and is quicker to cast her spell. Before Loki could finish his spell, Eerika muttered the final words of the spell and suddenly it felt like the life was being drained out of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few chapters already done and I am going to try and upload every week. we'll see.
> 
> * The Curia Regis is like the Royal/King's council or court.
> 
> **Seiðr is basically what magic is in old Norse


	2. The Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eerika and Thor fight. Loki falls. A sad chapter. :(

The world was spinning. Thor felt like he wanted to throw up. He heard multiple THUMPs from behind him and one beside him. He looked over to see Loki on the ground clutching his head. If he was being honest to himself that's what he wanted to do right now as well but he needed to face Eerika before she could cause any permanent damage to anything or anyone. The only reason he was still upright was because of his raw elemental power. The brute strength of his lightning powers was keeping the spell out of his head. 

Minutes past but it felt like hours. Loki didn't know what was going on. He couldn't focus on anything. No sound, no sight, no smells, nothing. He felt like he was being crushed by the entire building. His head hurts so much that she wanted to break his skull and take his brain out. More time passed before he could finally start to hear sounds. His eyes were still squeezed shut but he could hear the distant sound of battle. Slowly, he opened his eyes. His vision was still blurry. He blinked a few times and he looked around. He glanced at the Warriors Three and Lady Sif and he could see that they were in a similar position as him. They were clutching their heads and pulling out their hair like they wanted to take their brain out and throw it over the bridge. He looked around for Thor and he could see him and Eerika fighting. 

All at once, the memories from the earlier situation crash down on him. He could remember Eerika casting a spell that would make them feel lifeless. He could remember trying to cast a counterspell but not being fast enough. He was still on the ground as he watched his brother fight. He was in a position where his brother was standing in between him and Eerika. He still felt like a building was crushing him but now he was focussed. He suspected it was because of his powerful seiðr was blocking out the spell. It looks like Thor was winning the fight and he started to get up slowly with trembling limbs.

Just as he was finally getting on his feet, Eerika let out a war cry and started charging towards Thor with a magical dagger in her hand ready to stab Thor. She knew she was losing and she was desperate. Just as they were about to collide, Thor, stepped out of her way and she ran straight into Loki who was still unsuspecting and a little out of it. He felt pain blossom in his stomach and he let out a scream and fell to the ground. He quickly put one hand on the wound to stop the bleeding and tried to use the other to grab onto something. It was pointless, she hit him so hard that he wasn't able to stop them both from sliding off the edge of the bridge and falling into the void. 

“LOKI!!!!” 

Loki heard his brother scream his name but he was already falling. He reached out to grab the edge of the bridge but it was too far away. Just as he was about to go into unconsciousness someone grabbed his arm. He looked up and he could see Thor holding him and stopping him from falling into the void. Thor had a death grip on his hand and it didn't look like he was letting go anytime soon. _‘Thor is here, I’m safe if Thor is here’_ he thought. Just as he started to relax he felt himself starting to slip. His palm was covered in blood and sweat and he could see Thor struggling to hold on to him. When he looked behind Thor he saw that his brother had jumped off the bridge after him and the only thing keeping them both from falling was their father. He looked back to his hand in Thor's hand and he could see inch by inch as he was starting to slip. No one knew where the void ended up. Anyone who fell through never returned. People said it was a gateway to other worlds but no one truly believed it. Loki was a world-walker and he didn't believe it either. He knew of all the pathways that would lead to other worlds and as far as he knew, the void wasn't one of them. _‘So this is the end.’_ He thought sadly.

“Brother! Just hold on a little longer and we shall pull you up. You have my word.” Thor screamed. Loki knew deep down that they couldn’t do that. He just shook his head at Thor. He was slowly starting to lose feeling In his arm and he started to feel it go limp. He wasn't holding Thor's arm anymore and he was sliding out of his brother’s grip even faster now.

He looked up to Thor and said “ Brother I'm scared.” On any other day, he would never admit to his weaknesses but he felt like this was the last time he would ever see his family again. His family? No, not his family. He was a monster and he didn't belong with them. He never did, even before the trip to Jotunheim where his life was turned upside down. Although his mother had sat him down and explained that he would always be a part of his family, somewhere deep down a dark part of his brain it would scream that he didn't have a family. It screamed and said that monsters don't have families. But the other part of his brain said that his blood didn't matter and that Thor would always be his brother. Odin would always be his father. Frigga would always be his mother. With his mind settled he knew he didn't have much time left. He looked to his father and brother. They were looking back at him, unshed tears in their eyes 

“I love you,” he said. _‘Weak, foolish, baby! Though, is love really a weakness? Yes of course it is! Don’t be naive!’_ He scolded himself. He's supposed he could show some weakness since they would never see each other again.

His hand finally slipped out of Thor’s and he started his descent down into the void. He could hear his brother screams and shouts. He could see his father pulling Thor up onto the bridge. Eerika had already fallen and was long gone now, soon, he would be too. The last thing he saw before the darkness swallowed him was the tears in his brother's eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that I' just gonna upload all the chapters I have right now. Some will be longer than others.


	3. The alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki isn't stupid. He just doesn't know anything about Midgard. That _totally_ won't cause any problems, right?

The void felt like nothing and everything at the same time. Loki could see the constellations and the galaxies swirling about as he fell. It was so cold that he started to feel his fingertips change and his skin turned blue. If he was anywhere else he would start to panic at the sight of the monster's skin but here in the void, nothing mattered. He was going to die, he couldn't breathe. _‘Of course you can't breathe, there is no air in the void!’_ He thought to himself. Time slowed and sped up at the same time it felt like he had been falling for an eternity when he knew it had only been a few seconds. He was grateful for the numbness his limbs felt. He didn't know why they were numb but he didn't care. He could feel blood sliding down his stomach from where Eerika had stabbed him. That didn't matter. Nothing matters in the void. There was no sound. He couldn't even hear his own heart. He was sure the silence would drive him insane. All he had to listen to were his swirling thoughts. He thought about how he was going to die. How he would never see his mother or brother or father ever again. How he would never walk around the golden halls or eat in the feasting Hall. How he would never play another prank on the Warriors Three. How he would never stab Thor ever again. In some distant part of his mind, he recognized that he was crying but that didn't matter either.

He felt like he was going to fall forever and never stop. He didn't know when he had closed his eyes but he had. He opened them to see little stars twinkling in the darkness. He watched as they passed. As he passed. Would the great Halls of Valhalla open their gates to him? _‘No of course not, only the honorable are allowed in the halls of Valhalla and I am a monster.’_

The cold had settled deep in his bones. It was a lonely feeling, drifting in space, shivering as your body slowly turned to ice.

He didn't know when he lost consciousness but when he woke again he was in a different place. He knew it. There was still darkness all around and there were still stars floating about but it wasn't as dark, it wasn't as hopeless. Out in the distance, he could see that he was getting closer to a planet. _‘Strange,’_ He thought. The planet looked exactly like Midgard. But that meant that the theories were right! The void is just another gateway to another world! He wasn't going to die. Even though he was injured he was Asgardian ( _‘No your not, you never were you’re a monster monster monster monsterー’_ ) and Asgardians were tough. Based on the speed he was going and the distance between him and the planet he calculated that he would survive. _‘I’m not going to die I’m not going to die I’m not going to die I’m not going to die I’m not going toー’_ He keeps repeating that in his head until he can finally believe it. 

Even though the logical part of his brain tells him he's not going to sustain any fatal injuries he just can't help but listen to the pessimist part of his brain that tells him that he's going to die whether he’s Asgardian or a monster.  
He was still freaking out when he suddenly felt his lungs fill with air and his skin started to change back to his true form. _‘This is not your true form you oaf. This is just a mask! You're truly a monster underneath this pale skin. A blue ugly monster with your blood-red eyes. Disgusting’_. He had totally forgotten that he didn't have any air. It felt truly wonderful to be back in his true form and have air in his lungs. He could feel his skin slightly burning. A strange tingling sensation, as he passed through Midgard's atmosphere. He could see the ground getting closer and closer and closer. If he was being honest with himself which he almost never was, he would say that he's scared. He knew ( _hoped_ ) that his magic would protect him from the atmosphere and the inevitable crash landing but he couldn’t help the panic that was slowly creeping into his mind. 

Before he knew it, he was on the ground. He made a huge crater where he landed on the stone floor of Midgard. It didn't look like any stone he'd ever seen but Midgard was a strange backwater planet so he's supposed it would have strange things on it. _‘Huh, that didn’t hurt too much but that could just be the shock and adrenaline talking’_. He let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding. It hurt to breathe. It would seem that his calculations were correct. He wasn’t dead! Though he had acquired some pretty serious injuries. A few burns scattered across his body from passing through the atmosphere, several broken bones, a couple of scrapes here and there and… _‘oh right… I forgot about the stab wound’_. It wasn't too bad he knew he had worse but it was painful. He had put his hand over the stab wound on instinct as he fell and now he was glad he did because the bleeding has stopped. He didn’t know where on Midgard he was so he's supposed he had to get up and scan the area. He stayed on the ground for a while, focusing his magic on mending broken bones and burns. 

After a few minutes of just lying there, he got to his feet with a groan. He couldn't just lie here, he knew the mortals were fragile beings and if someone saw him just get up and walk away from a fall like that, they would surely be suspicious. He didn't know how mortals would react if they realized a god was among them. 

He scanned his surroundings and was thankful because there was no mortal insight. No one witnessed his fall. He looked around a bit more and he realized he was in an alley. It wasn't like any ally that existed on Asgard. He knew all the alleys in Serenity and its neighboring villages. None word dark like this. Sure, there was darkness there but it was nothing like this. 

It wasn't like any ally that existed on Asgard. He knew all the alleys in Serenity and its neighboring villages. None word dark like this. Sure, there was darkness there but it was nothing like this. This felt different like his whole soul was surrounded in darkness. It felt like the void again but less intense.

He decided that he wanted to get out of this alley as soon as possible. He started walking out towards the main road where there were lights everywhere. Once again, he looked around to make sure no one saw him get out of the alley. As he was walking down the street he saw people passing by. Their clothes were strange just like everything else on this realm. He looked down at his own clothes, they were ripped in some places and stained with blood and dirt. That wasn't a concern to him though because he could fix it with his magic. The problem was that his clothes didn't fit in with the fashion of this realm. He didn't want to change out of his Asgardian armor. He always had to wear it as a prince of the realm eternal. It is beautiful, truly a work of art. He had designed it himself when he had been old enough to wear his own armor. It is lightweight so it doesn’t interfere with his quick and agile fighting style. Though it is thinner than a normal Asgardian armor there was still enough metal to keep him protected. The only way to get through it is with uru**, the strongest metal in the universe, and brute strength. Magic would also damage it, which is how Eerika stabbed him. Since he had put protection charms and runes on it, the damage wasn’t too bad. The armor its self is made of Asgardian metal, the second strongest metal. Loki loves everything about his armor, from the green, gold, and silver of his official colors to the leathery smell. Of course, he doesn't have to worry about getting it ruined since he has several extra pairs in his pocket dimension. He keeps all sorts of things there. From food to clothes to his knives. He has all the necessities stored away just in case he gets stranded and has to survive on his own. Just like right now. 

He knows his brother had made some friends on Midgard but he doesn't know who they are, where they are, or even if they would want to help him. He has no allies. Loki was truly on his own. The thought hit him like a brick wall. Where would he go? What should he do? Who can he trust? The answer to the last question was easy. Never trust anyone. He doesn’t even trust Thor completely. Not after the Nidavellir incident. He shivers and touches his lips instinctually. _‘No don't think about that!’_ He quickly tells himself. He takes a breath and lets it out slowly. _‘Okay, Loki you need to focus. You need to blend in. You need to change your clothes. Get your thoughts in order!’_ He orders himself. 

He looks around again to the people of Midgard. A man in some sort of tunic with a hood walks past him. He supposes that would do. He looks around again to make sure no one's watching and with a shimmer of green his armor is gone back into his pocket dimension and he's left in a dark green hoodie. He notices that this isn't a really crowded area. Loki thinks that’s strange but doesn't think anything more of it. Judging by the other mortal’s wardrobes he guesses that his leather pants are alright and his combat boots look fine. With his looks in order, he pulls his hood on and tries to think of where to go next. He's hungry so the first thing he should do is try to find some food. He doesn't want to waste the food in his pocket dimension (even if there's a lot of it) if he can get it from an outside source.

He looks around to see if he can find any place that sells food and he realizes that all the words on the buildings are written in a Midgardian language. That is not a problem for him and his silvertongue. He spent many years perfecting his All-speak. The All-speak is a special language native to Asgard that lets you understand any language and make others understand you as well. This also works in writing form. Of course, he could not use, it if he didn't want to so no one could understand him (because there are situations where you don't want everyone to understand you) but right now he needs it. It’s like any other second language, you have to consciously switch to it from your original tongue. Not all Asgardians can learn the All-speak despite popular belief. For example, Thor had to learn languages the old-fashioned way, one language at a time. It’s all up to chance. He knows of only a few people that have it, his mother, father, and a few other lords and ladies in the court. It’s not a common gift but it’s not too rare. One in ten people can learn it if they try and have the proper teacher.

When Loki switches to the All-speak everything suddenly makes much more sense. He looks around the street once more. You could see different signs all over the place. Some with bright lights, some with broken glass. _‘Damn, this must be a really bad part of town if no one wants to be around here. And everything is broken. Is all the city like this? I sure hope not! Okay, Loki back to important things. You need food.’_ He scans the area and his nose picks up on a scent. It smells like roasted pork. He starts walking in the direction of the scent and notices that he is coming up on a much more crowded area. He slithers through the floods of people like the snake that he is.

When he finally can see the place where the food is being sold he realizes that he has no money. Sure he has about a dozen bricks of solid gold in his pocket dimension, (He is a prince after all) but somehow he knows that if he just walks up to the mortal and hands him a brick of gold it will turn all attention to him. Right now he doesn’t need that type of attention. To solve this problem he will have to perform a little sleight of hand. Yes, Loki knows that stealing is not honorable and since he’s Asgardian he's supposed to be all about honor but right now he couldn't care less. Sure, there might be some consequences for his actions later on but there won't be a later on if he starves to death. The last time he ate food was before Thor's failed coronation. After that, he had been so stressed and worried about his brother and father that he hadn't had time to eat. Asgardians can survive a lot longer without food than mortals can but they still need it. So, mind made up he slips his hand into the pocket of the man that was about to pass him he feels a small *leather pouch and he grabs it. The man doesn't notice a thing and he's long gone when he does.

The leather pouch itself isn't worth anything Loki knows this. It's what inside that matters, as the mortals say. He chuckles to himself. _‘Norns, I truly am funny.’_ He looks inside the leather pouch and finds a bunch of little paper rectangles. He's seen other mortals use these to buy stuff so he supposes this is the money he's been looking for.

For some reason all the mortals are squished together beside the buildings, no one goes in the middle of the path. Loki shrugs. It's not his fault the mortals are too stupid to find a better way to get where they need to go. He does, for a second think that there might be the reason that the mortals avoid this path but he shakes it off. He is a god and he has a motto: I do what I want. Everone on Asgard knows it by now. He steps onto the clear path and notices that the ground is black instead of the slight greyish color he had been walking on until this point. He shrugs again, Norn's he's been doing a lot of that lately. 

He’s about halfway across the black path and thinking of where to go after he gets some food when he hears shouting coming from behind him. He turns to them to ask what they want when finally registers what they are saying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Leather pouch means wallet. Since this is written in Loki's POV, some things have different names because Loki doesn't know what their actual names are.
> 
> **Uru. Fun fact: Thor's hammer is made of uru.


	4. The Metal Creature

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki meets a car for the first time. We see things from Batman's PVO

“Hey, kid! Get off the road!”

“Move outa the way!

“A car is coming! Watch out!”

They are screaming and waving their arms around like they’re on fire. _‘What the fuck is a car?’_ Maybe these mortals **are** on fire and it’s invisible. Well, he **is** the god of fire so Loki could help them. He was about to ask them if they were on fire when he felt a pair of bright lights on him and heard a strange honking sound. He turned to the source of the sound and saw a strange metal creature coming at him. He tried to get out of the way but it was too late. The metal creature smashed into him.

_“Damn it”_ *

The metal creature smashed into him and Loki knows that it's going to be bruised in the morning. _‘If it was Thor, he wouldn't even get a bruise. You are so weak.’_ The dark part of his mind whispers. Though the first part is true, Thor wouldn’t get so much as a bruise from that, the second part is not. The only reason that did hurt was because he is still growing and hasn’t come of age yet.

With his thoughts cleared Loki realizes that he has made a huge dent in the metal beast. He figures that mortals can’t do that and when they see what he has down, they would want to ask questions. He lets out a string of very colorful curses and he knows his mother would be disappointed in him. He looks around and sees that the mortals are still trying to process what happened. He makes sure that nobody can see his face and disappears in the shadows.

###### 000

In a different part of the city, Batman steps out of the shadows. He is alone tonight. Robin is with the team on a mission. There is only one other person on the GCPD rooftop, as usual. With silent feet, he stalks closer to the other man and begins. This is his favorite part.

“Commissioner Gorden,” The bat says.

Gorden jumps at the sound of the dark knight’s voice. Just as he was about to think that everything is still in place he notices a slight wetness on his pants. The coffee he had been holding had spilled on his pants.

He turns and glares at Batman but it’s nothing compared to the bat-glare. Behind his cowl, Batman’s eyes are twinkling with mirth.

“You need to stop doing that!” Gorden yells and then is a quieter voice he mutters “Now everyone is going to think I peed my pants.”

Batman’s lips twitch slightly but if your not looking which no one but Robin and Alfred ever does you would have missed it completely. “What’s the problem? Is the Joker escaping arkam again?” Batman asks.

“Well Joker did escape arkam but he already got away. I have a different problem and I thought you might want to know about it.” He slips a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to Batman. “ Go to this address, there has been an unusual crime scene. Okay, that’s all I got for yoー... and he’s gone. Of course, he is!” Gorden continues to mutter under his breath about coffee and donuts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story begins at the start of young justice episode 6. "Infiltrator". Batman has just arrived in Gotham city after giving the team a new mission.
> 
> * when Loki is in danger or panics he switches back to his first language instead of using the All-speak. If there are double quotations and all the words are italicized, that means he is speaking in Asgardian.  
> " _Like this_ "


	5. The Golden apple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki tries to figure out what to do next. Batman questions some witnesses.

Batman silently lands on the rooftop across the crime scene. He observes the area a finds a car in the middle of the street with a person-sized dent in the front of it. The only people he knows who can do that and walk off like nothing happened wouldn’t run away after it happened. They would stay and make sure everyone was okay. Gorden was right, this is something he should look into. He looked over the rest of the scene but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. Since no major crime had ever happened in this area, there aren’t any security cameras that could help. The traffic cameras are too blurry to catch anything important. The only thing they confirm is that this person doesn’t look to have enough mass to take that hit with nothing but his body. This means they are a meta-human most likely. The only thing he could do now that could help him get information is to talk to the witnesses and see what happened through their eyes. Batman walks to the group of witnesses and chooses one randomly to talk to. He picks a man with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a mustache wearing cargo shorts and a gray t-shirt. He walks up to the man and taps him a the shoulder.

“What is your name?” Batman growls.

“Uh oh uh P-P-Patrick Jackson” Jackson stutters out. 

“Can you tell me what happened here?”

“Uh sure. Well, I was just minding my own business walking down the sidewalk like a normal person, ya know? And then I see people gathered beside the street right? So I walk over there to see what’s happening and I see this guy in the middle of the street walking like he owns without a care in the world. When people started tellin’ him to get off the road he just stared back at us like we were the crazy ones. An’ after that he got hit by the car over there see?” He points to the destroyed car and continues his explanation.”Yeah and then he just looked around a little to see if anyone saw it happen then he walked away like it was nothin’!” Patrick finished.

“Did you see his face? What did he look like? What was he wearing?” Batman questioned.

“Nah I didn’ see his face ‘cause he was wearing a hoodie. Dark green with uh black pants and boots. To be honest he looked like he was pretty young. Maybe 14 or 13. Skinny slim figure and… yeah, that’s all I can remember. Is that helpful?” Patrick looked up to Batman.

He questioned about 20 witnesses and they said the same thing. He also found out from one of the witnesses that after the person got hit, he said something in some sort of ‘weird’ language. Batman would have to keep an eye out for this person. They could be dangerous but most likely it would be unintentional. From what he’s gathered the person isn’t from around here. He’s young and confused and might need help. People might want to take advantage of his innocence and abilities. Batman has to find this boy before any of Gotham’s big bad do.

###### 000

Loki estimates that at least one hour has passed since that metal beast had hit him. He can already feel the bruises on the whole left side of his body where the beast hit him. He sighed, if he would be in need to fight, it would be extremely uncomfortable. His seiðr is starting to become weak since he still hasn’t found any other sources of food. Since his seiðr was trying to heal the bruises and scratches on his body and had already healed the stab wound completely, he has a lot less energy than he did before. Seiðr takes energy to use and if he uses any more he wouldn’t have enough energy to do anything else. Loki can still do little magicks like conjuring a knife or some food from his pocket dimension but not much else. _‘Norn’s, if I continue like this, I’ll be dead by the end of the week.’_ He sighed again. He still doesn’t want to use his supplies yet but he can’t stand it anymore. Loki looks around the deserted alleyway once before holding out his hand and letting a golden apple from the orchard of Idunn come into it. Now, it is a common belief on Midgard that the golden apples are what gives the gods eternal youth but that is not the truth. Our long life spans are in our DNA but the golden apples are delicious. Loki shrugges as he takes a bite from the apple, he doesn’t have to worry yet. He still has plenty of food left. 

His seiðr is slightly stronger and he has slightly more energy. He supposes that should be enough for now. Next, he should try and find out more information about the city he’s stuck in. He needs more data if he’s going to find a way back to Asgard. He has already tried calling out to Heimdall but nothing happened. All he succeeded in doing was convincing some homeless people that he was insane and talking to the sky. He also managed to deduce that something must have happened to Heimdall because there is no other reason for him to ignore Loki. Come to think of it, Loki didn't see Heimdall in the fight with Thor and Eerika. She must have done something to him to keep him from alerting anyone of her attack. _‘Oh Norn’s, I hope he’s okay.’_ Heimdall has always been a good friend to Loki. He shakes his head. _‘Now is not the time to worry about anyone other than yourself.’_ Yes, he knows that sounds selfish but Loki calls it survival. The others can handle themselves.

Now, what was it he was trying to do? Right, gather information about this city he’s in. How should he go about that? He is walking around aimlessly and he is trying to keep a low profile. No doubt the king of this land* has ordered a search party for him. He did, after all, defeat a metal beast in front of a bunch of people. Maybe the king would help him get home since Loki is a god and also a prince. Kings like to be in the good graces of the gods right? Loki dismisses that idea after a few seconds. Midgard doesn’t have enough powerful magic to get him home so there would be no point in seeking out the king. He doesn't have enough energy to world walk right now either so he just has to wait around for a while. He usually likes walking in the shadows and hiding but he’s so tired. He wants to sleep right here on the ground. Loki pinches himself. Right now he needs to be alert and ready. He doesn’t know if anyone saw his face or not. He doesn’t have nearly enough energy to shapeshift into another face. He doesn’t even have enough energy for a glamour and that’s one of the most simple magicks he can do! No Loki can’t rest now, not yet. He has made a mess of things. Ugh, that’s usually Thor’s job! _‘Great! Now I’m turning into Thor!’_ Sometimes Loki thinks his motto gets him in more trouble than it’s worth. _‘No.’_ He shakes his head. His motto will always be worth it because Loki does what he wants no matter what happens.

He is still walking around the deserted streets when something catches his eye. A poster with big, bold, black letters hung on the wall of the alleyway. He pulled down his hood so he could get a better view of the writing. It read: **Come and Learn about the History of our Wonderful city at the Gotham City Museum!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The king of this land. Loki is not familiar with diplomacy. Since he hasn't visited Midgard in a long time, he thinks it's still being run by a ruler.


	6. The Setting of the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki takes a break. He still doesn't know what a car is.

Loki could feel a grin tugging at his lips. This is wonderful! This is absolutely wonderful indeed. This poster has just given Loki the perfect opportunity to learn about his situation. This poster told a story. A very informative story even with such few words. It told him the name of the city. Gotham. _‘Huh…. it’s a strange name.’_ Loki shrugged. _‘Strange name for a strange city.’_ It also gave him a place to go. He was tired of wondering around alleyways and this is the perfect excuse to do something other than hide. Now the only problem he had was that he didn’t know where the museum was. Sure, the poster had given him an address but he didn’t know the names of the streets here. He couldn’t teleport or walk the shadow paths* if he didn’t know where his destination was physically. It doesn’t help to know the names of places. He needed to see it on a map. No, what he needed was a break. Well, he still needed a map but he knew he couldn’t continue without some much-needed rest. He took a minute to sit on the filthy ground, leaning his back against the brick wall. Once sitting, he felt as though he would never get up. 

Now that he is staying still he can feel his muscles and bones aching. He hadn’t had the time to do a proper check over to make sure everything was okay. He had done a quick once over after the fight with the metal beast to make sure no bones were broken but that was all. Sure it hadn’t hurt too much to crash with the beast but better to be safe than sorry. Now he wanted to check his whole body for injury, minor as it may be. It took a few minutes longer than it would have normally but he was trying to use the least amount of energy possible. This meant using his seiðr to check for damage as slow as possible. To anyone who looked at him, he would just look like some random homeless kid sleeping on the streets. No one saw the young god who was looking himself over for injuries. After a while, he determined that he didn’t have any injuries that needed his attention. Good. Most of them were cuts, scrapes, and bruises. He decided that he would let them heal in their own time, he didn’t want to waste energy and seiðr to heal something unnecessary. Still, Loki was happy he had done the check over. He needed to know the state of his body if he was to go to battle. Loki had a feeling that he would be, very soon. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did. He would have to be more cautious with his left side where the metal creature had hit him. 

The stab wound was completely healed by now. He had made sure to clean it so it wouldn’t get infected. He didn’t have time to get sick. The only thing it left behind was a faint scar. He didn’t really care about that. He has many scars littered all over his body and he knows that the number will only continue to rise. Though he is a master in both seiðr and knives (among other things) he still gets injured from time to time. To gain experience and skill, you have to gain scars. That was what father always said. Since he was an Asgardian prince, he had been near battle for as long as he could remember. 

The Æsir are a race of warriors and gods, therefore it is expected for everyone to have basic warrior training from as soon as they could walk. Everyone on Asgard no matter, if they are male or female, young or old, have at least three decades of combat training. Being a prince of the Æsir meant that he has been training his whole life! He is constantly fighting weather Asgard is at peace or war. He has seen war and has killed so many times that he can’t even count. Thor would take pride in that but Loki feels nothing. Thor takes joy in killing monsters and enemies but Loki is unfeeling. Now, that doesn't mean Loki just goes around killing anything he doesn't like, but he doesn't have an issue with killing an enemy. He has seen and caused death so many times that when it occurs, he doesn’t feel anything most of the time. It’s something that just happens. Loki likes to think of it as the sun setting. It comes and goes. People die. New people are born. It’s a cycle. Sure, if someone close to him like a family member or a friend ( _‘you don’t have any friends’_ ) dies then he would weep and mourn and grieve like everyone else. It would leave a scar on his soul but Loki would survive. He always does. That’s right, Loki is not new to the game of survival and when he plays it, he **always** comes out on top. With new determination, Loki hops to his feet and starts looking for a map. Loki will **not** sit around waiting to die of starvation or something, no, he will go out there and do what he does best. Create chaos. With a smirk, he pulls up his hood and disappears into the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot of headcanons and I can't wait to write about them!
> 
> *Walk the shadow paths. In this story, shadow walking is like teleporting. You walk in one shadow and walk out the closest shadow to your destination. Loki invented this. He is the only one who knows how to do it. It takes less energy than teleporting but it's more dangerous. If you don't know what you're doing, you could get lost in the shadows. You can't travel to other realms with this. Only within the realm. the same applies with teleporting.


	7. The Alarm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman does some research in the bat-cave before hearing an alarm come from the bat-computer.

When Batman returned to the cave, Robin was still out on a mission. He was starting to get slightly worried but he knew Dick could handle himself. He sat down in front of the bat-computer and started searching for any unusual activities in the GCPD system. After about a half-hour of searching, he came across what he was looking for, something out of the ordinary. He pulls the police reports about a large crater in some alleyway. The report says that whatever made it was from space. The report states that it was likely a meteor that burned up in the atmosphere until it was the size of a pebble then landed in the alleyway. After that, the report suggests that some random person saw it, found it interesting, and took it home. Bruce knows better than that.

The alleyway where the crater was is in walking distance to the street where the strange car accident happened. If someone could take the heat of the earth’s atmosphere and the landing after passing it and walk off like it was no big deal, then would it be too much of a stretch to think that the same person walked onto the street without checking first and taking the full force of the car and walk away like its no big deal. It would make sense. If this person was an alien, they might not know about cars or streets. They might be strong enough to get hit by a car because they are not human. These two situations are too well connected to be considered a coincidence. The only person Bruce can think of that can do that is Clark but it can’t be Clark because the witnesses from the accident said the person was slim and Superman is the exact opposite of slim. Bruce sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. He really needs to find this person before anyone else does. 

Just as he was about to start searching the city again he heard an alarm go off. He looked to the bat-computer and saw that the warning was about a hostage situation at Gotham city Museum. He quickly read over the police report and felt a little relieved. He knew that he shouldn’t feel relieved if people’s lives are in danger but he couldn’t help it. The report said that the Joker is responsible for the situation. That means that the Joker is busy and won’t have time to try and catch the alien boy. That’s one less criminal looking for the boy. The report said that the hostages are unconscious. The Joker knocked them out with some sort of gas. The museum was recently under construction and renovation. Today was it’s reopening night. There are about 20 hostages and Joker plans to hold a ransom when they come back into consciousness. That should happen in the next few hours. 

So far, about 10 minutes have passed from when the situation first started. It would take 5 minutes to get to the museum. He should get those people out of there as soon as possible. Though Batman guesses that Joker won’t kill anyone until the first hour, you can never be sure with that man. Better be safe than sorry. He supposes that the boy could wait. He has 20 people to save first. He wishes Robin was here so he wouldn’t have to do this alone. Batman sighed. He knew he could do it by himself, but sometimes he just misses Dick. They have both been busy lately and haven’t seen each other too much. Dick with his new team and school and Batman with the influx of crime that has suddenly appeared in Gotham over the past few weeks. 

Batman takes one last look at the police report and jumps into the Batmobile. If he’s lucky, he will have this situation handled in under 20 minutes. After that, he would look for the alien boy. His goal is to have him found by dawn. Batman zooms through the streets of his city towards the museum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmm... I wonder who batman is going to meet at the museum. ;)


	8. The Bus Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki asks for some directions. He still thinks Midgard is strange.

Loki walks past a few mortals before finally deciding to get it over with. He doesn’t want to sound desperate or stupid by asking someone where he could get a map. In Asgard, it would be odd for someone to not know where places are. Unless of course, they are of a different realm, then it would be acceptable. Otherwise, people would just think that you’re stupid. Loki was trying to blend in, not look like an outsider. _‘You already made yourself an outsider by battling with that metal beast you oaf!’_ Everyone knows where everything is in Asgard, especially something as important as a museum. This is not because Asgard is a small place. No, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The only reason everyone knows their way around is because they have spent hundreds of years learning the layout of the place. Loki himself knows the streets of Serenity like the back of his hand. He remembers the times when Thor would sneak him out of the palace so they could go out for walks. 

He suddenly realizes something. The mortals don’t have enough time to learn every nook and cranny of their cities with their short life spans. So it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to ask for directions right? Especially a child who hasn’t had enough time in his short life to learn the city. Loki knows that he might look like a child to the mortals even if in reality, he is older than all of them. With that settled he walks up to a mortal that looks like he would give a shit about him and puts on his best ‘Help me! I’m a lost kid’ face. _‘Masks. That’s all you ever do. Pathetic. You hide behind masks because you know that no one would want to see the ugly face of a monster behind the mask!’_

Loki silences the voice in his head, he has a role to play. The stage is set and everyone is in their places. All he has to do is read his lines. The mortal is reading a paper that looks to have the day’s past occurrences on it so he doesn’t see Loki approach. He switches to the All-speak and clears his throat to get the mortal’s attention. The mortal looks up to him with an annoyed looking expression but it softens as soon he sees Loki’s face. He grins on the inside but his outward appearance doesn’t even twitch. _‘Damn, I should go preform in some plays when I get home.’_

“Hello son, what can I do for you?” The mortal asks

“Um hello, I was just wondering if you could give me a map. You see, I’m a little lost.” His voice shakes but he doesn’t stutter. That would make it sound fake. He notices that he has a different accent from the mortal but he doesn’t seem to mind. 

The mortal smiles. “Sure! There is a map on the poster board in the bus stop.” He points to a structure near the black path where the metal beasts roam. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Damn, this mortal really **does** give a shit! Loki almost feels bad for tricking him. Almost. It’s not like he has caused the mortal any trouble. He shakes his head.

“No thanks, you already helped me out enough.” With a nod to the mortal, he turns and walks to the structure called a ‘bus stop’. _‘What the fuck is a bus?’_ Sometimes Loki thinks he will never find answers to his endless questions.

Loki had listened to the mortals talk to each other while he had been wandering around to try and understand their speech patterns. He would never talk like the way he just did on a normal day. _‘But today is not a normal day now, is it?’_ It felt wrong and weird. _‘Everything on this realm is strange’_ Loki concludes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of feel bad for the person who has to explain earth cultures to Loki. It's going to be a very challenging task. But don't worry! Loki is a quick study. Though I don't think I lose the fancy talk when he is talking normally. I don't think it would be realistic is he just suddenly switches the way he talks when he's been talking like that for over a century!


	9. The Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki gains some much-needed energy thinks and about his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that there isn't a lot of action happening but just keep reading, we're getting there. Thanks for the kudos. :)

Loki stopped walking about 10 meters before the bus stop. He just stood there for a few seconds, eyeing the road warily. He didn’t know why he had such an irrational fear of these black paths and metal beasts. The battle with the creature hadn’t even hurt that badly. For the life of him, he can not figure out why he's so scared. He is a god for crying out loud! Those metal beasts should be scared of **him**! _‘Stop being weak, you have things to do and mischief to make.’_ At the thought of mischief, he relaxed slightly. He walked the remaining 10 meters to the bus stop and stared at the poster board where the map hung. There were so many ads and fliers stuck on the board. Loki could barely see the map! 

Loki heaved a sigh and started taking down the ads that were covering the map. Once he could see the map clearly, he decided that he would take down the map and keep it. Who knows what he might need in the future. Sure, he kept maps of all the realms in his pocket dimension but the ones about Midgard were outdated by at least a hundred years. _‘Ugh! How was I supposed to know that Midgard can change so much in a century or two.’_ For as long as he could remember, Asgard had never changed. He supposes that there were minor changes like a garden here or there but nothing so drastic! When Loki compares the map from the bus stop to the maps he has on the general location of the city, he sees that almost nothing has stayed the same! 

Loki looks over the map and spots the museum. He notices that the map is not very detailed. Sure, the important stuff is there but other than that it’s a very vague map. He shrugs, it’s good enough for him. For now. Since he knows the location of the museum, he can shadow-walk there. He doesn’t have the patience to walk all the way across the city and teleporting would take too much energy. It would take slightly more time to shadow-walk but it would take less energy. 

Though shadow-walking was less tiring than teleporting, it still needs a lot of energy. Loki looked around and saw that no one was watching. He held out his hand and there was a green shimmer before a plate appeared. There was some roasted meat along with boiled vegetables on it. He started to eat and that’s when he realized how hungry he had been. He had started putting food in his pocket dimension (he currently has enough to last him a year if he continues like this) after the time when he and Thor had gotten stranded on a desert for a week. At the time, his mother hadn’t allowed him to create a pocket dimension for supplies and the trip was only supposed to last a day so they weren’t prepared. When they had gotten home, Loki had begged his mother to allow him to make a pocket dimension but she had still said no and said that it was too dangerous. You see, to have a pocket dimension with you at all times, you have to attach it to your soul. If you do it wrong or make a mistake it could end up killing you. This is why only a few sorcerers have them, they say it’s too dangerous. 

Being the stubborn child that he was, Loki decided that he would do it anyway. To him, there were more pros than cons. A pocket dimension existed outside time and space so as long as he had access to his seiðr, he had access to everything in his pocket dimension. Of course, there are always situations where his seiðr could be blocked so Loki always keeps two knives hidden away on his person. In addition to convenience, it is also secure. It is attached to him so he's the only one that can take and put things inside. The goods outweighed the bad. He had asked Amora to help him with the spell since he couldn’t ask his mother. Amora had often taught him more dangerous spells along with dark magic since his mother would refuse to teach him. Amora was and still is one of his only friends. Of course, Loki had ended up sick for five months after preforming the spell and had almost died but it was worth it. Loki misses Amora, they would get into so much trouble together. He wonders if he’ll ever see her again. He wonders if he’ll see any of them again. Right now, he doesn’t have enough energy to world-walk back to Asgard, the void had made him weak and strained his magic. He knew many hidden paths* that led to Asgard here on Midgard but none of them were near his current location. He would have to stay in this city until he got stronger. He needed information about the city to survive.

He finished his food and was already starting to regain some of his strength. _‘Finally!’_ He took one last look at the map before putting it in his pocket dimension. He went into a deserted alleyway and looked for a shadow to walk through. _‘This city sure has a lot of alleyways, not that I’m complaining.’_ Loki grinned when he spotted the perfect shadow. No one was watching him so he stepped into the shadow and disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided that Loki should have a friend. other than Frigga and Thor of course. If he has a friend that likes him because he's Loki and not because he's a prince or a brother of Thor, it would make him less jealous. Amora is a little bit older than him but they don't really care about that.
> 
> *the hidden paths are like that cave that they use to get to Svartalfheim in Thor: TDW. There are a lot of them and they all lead to different places. Not many people know they exist and even fewer know where they are. Loki knows where most of them are across the nine realms. He doesn't need them to travel between realms but world-walking ( something that is thought to be impossible but Loki can do it anyway) takes a lot of energy and concentration so he mainly uses the paths.


	10. The man with a head too small for his body

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki saves someone's life and makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer chapter. I just didn't know how to cut it off. Hope you like it. I read through it multiple times but there might still be a few spelling/grammar mistakes so sorry about that.

Loki stepped out of a shadow of a large building. He scanned his surroundings and found that was in another alleyway. _‘Seriously! What’s with the alleyways???’_ He could see two other figures in the dark, he wasn’t alone then. He shrugged. Just as he was starting to walk out of the alley and towards the museum, he heard a scream. Loki let out an irritated sigh and turned around to face the two figures standing in the dark. Loki was perfectly happy with ignoring these Midgardians and going on his merry way but _noooo_ , he should have known better. These mortals always require attention.

He stared at the scene before him. A bulky man who had a head that was too small for his body was standing in front of a short… was that a child? Loki wasn’t the best at guessing mortal’s ages but from the looks of him, he was young. Younger than Loki’s outward appearance. The man was holding out one hand in front of the boy, likely wanting money. He had a small knife in his right hand. He was waving it around threateningly. _‘Norn’s help me, this man doesn’t even know how to hold a knife properly!’_ Loki would have facepalmed right there if he didn’t have to intervene. Yes, he knows that there is a chance that this mortal could hurt him, but it’s a very small one. Anyways, there would not be any serious damage done to him, if damage should occur. Judging by his stance and the way he was holding the knife, the man knew how to throw a punch but not much else. Sure he is huge and way bigger than him but that’s not a problem for Loki. He has experience with fighting people that are stronger and bigger than him. Even though Loki doubts that this mortal is actually stronger than him, despite his hugeness. He is a mere mortal and Loki is a god. Loki shakes his head and pushes that thought away. Even though Loki is likely stronger and has way more training and experience, he doesn’t want to get arrogant. He’s not Thor.

As he’s about to step out of the shadows to face the mortal and stop him from likely killing the kid, Loki stops to ask himself why he’s doing this. Why go through with the trouble? This matter does not concern him, he could just mind his own business and go to the museum to do what he came here to do. _‘I’m not the hero type anyway. That’s Thor’s thing and I’m not Thor, as everyone keeps reminding me. I’m not a hero.’_ Yet Loki can’t help but feel a little heroic when he looks into the scared eyes of the boy. He knows the feeling of desperately wishing that someone would come and rescue him. He thinks back to all the times he was beaten up by people because of his magic or lack of muscle. He remembers wishing for Thor to come and protect him. Thor almost never did because he was away most of the time, off-world with the ‘Idiot’ three (as he liked to call them) haveing some sort of adventure while Loki was stuck on Asgard getting beat up by the people that were supposed to respect him as a prince of the realm. He had asked to join on their travels but he had been told that he was too young and had been ignored. They had let him tag along when he got older but he found that he no longer wanted to go. By then barely anyone would dare mess with him. He had found a way of protecting himself. Anyone that hurt him would become the target of his latest prank and would later get humiliated in front of everyone. He made sure that the pranks would only hurt pride so even if he got caught (which he almost never did) he would be in no trouble because the pranks were ‘harmless’. The only people who knew how truly hurtful they were were the person getting pranked and Loki. That’s right, Loki knew how much pain the pranks caused and he purposefully designed them to look harmless to bystanders. They call him the god of tricks and mischief when all he had ever done was protect himself when no one else would (though he still did like pranking people for fun, so maybe it was still an accurate title.). 

He could see the hopelessness in the boy’s eyes as the man moved closer to him. Loki knew the feeling and he would only wish it only on his greatest enemies, not some helpless kid. In addition maybe by doing this, he could get some good luck from the Norns. He had read about something called karma and he really needed some. The good kind, obviously. About two seconds had passed while he had been deciding on what to do. _‘Damn, I’m a fast thinker.’_

Mind made up, Loki stepped out of his hiding spot before things could escalate. He clears his throat to make himself known. Both mortals turn their heads to look at him. The bulky mortal starts to shake slightly. From where they standing, the two mortals can’t see anything about him except his silhouette. Loki had made sure of it.

“B-B-Batman?” The bigger mortal chokes out. He could see some color return to the boy’s face at the mention of this Batman. Interesting. _‘Who is this Batman? Some kind of local hero?’_

“Who?” Loki asks curiously, not even the least bit concerned about the knife that is now pointed in his direction. 

“Your not Batman.” The man states, the trembling in his limbs disappearing. It would seem that all the fear he had moments ago had vanished. Loki will have to make sure to put it back. He could see the shoulders of the kid sag slightly but there was still hope in his eyes.

Loki chuckles a bit. “No, I’m not. Now if you wouldn’t mind taking a step away from the boy and putting down the knife, then that would be wonderful.” Loki says in a cheery voice.

When the man makes no move to step back or drop the knife, Loki takes a step forward and lets the two knives that were previously hidden away in his sleeve come into his hands. He doesn’t want to conjure knives from his pocket dimension because that wastes energy. Why would he, when there are two perfectly good knives right up his sleeves? He takes another step closer, into the light so the mortals can see him properly. Of course with his hood on, no one could see his face but they could tell that he didn’t look much older than the kid he’s trying to save. Immediately, the man seems to regain his confidence when sees Loki, automatically underestimating him based on his size. Good, that’s exactly what Loki wanted. This mortal has no idea who he’s messing with. 

“Listen kid, I don’ know who you think you are, comin’ here an’ orderin’ me around but you better turn around and disappear before I do somethin’ I’ll regret. The only person that has to die tonight is Billy here, he needs to pay up or he won’t be here long enough to use the money that he stole. This is none of your business so scram! Don’t try an’ be a hero.” The man says with a deep accented voice.

At this, the boy glares at the man and starts talking. “I didn’t steal anything. I earned that money and I’m not gonna give it to ya for your ‘protection’. Whatever that means.” He turns back to Loki, his gaze pleading. “Please help me!” 

“Well if you’re not going to step away from ‘Billy’ was it? Billy, yeah, then we have ourselves a problem. I’m not backing down either so I challenge you to a fight.” Loki makes a show of puffing up his chest and standing tall. He is trying to make himself look bigger, not because he’s if secretly scared but because he wants the man to think that he is.

The man snorts and starts walking towards him. “Is that so? Well, I guess I’ll have the blood of two little boys on my hand tonight.” He stops in front of Loki. With a wild slash, he tries to slit Loki’s throat but he easily sidesteps him. Loki smiles, this mortal may be strong but he has absolutely no skill. Loki doesn’t want to show too many cards by letting on how strong he actually is so he continues to dodge all his attacks but he doesn’t actually try attacking the man. After about half a minute, the man makes another move to attack him, overextending his arm in an attempt to stab him. He falls to the ground after Loki trips one of his legs, losing his balance.

Before he can even try to stand, Loki kneels beside him, one foot on the ground and the other on the man’s chest to keep him from getting up. Loki puts one of his knives against his neck and rips the man’s knife out of his grip with his other hand. He picks up the knife that the man dropped and puts it in his pocket dimension. It’s not a very good knife but he might need it later.  
The boy, Billy, is standing in the corner of the alleyway with an awed expression while the man looks less than pleased with the recent turn of events. He tries to wiggle out from his position under Loki’s boots, not caring about the knife at his throat but has no success.

“Now, if you don’t mind I have a few questions and I was hoping one of you could answer them.” Loki down at the man and then to Billy. He makes sure that his face is still covered and waits for one of them to respond. Billy walks a little closer to him and smiles a bit.

“Sure!” Billy exclaims.

At the same time, the man shouts: “Who the fuck are you!?!?!” 

Loki ignores the man’s question and turns to Billy. “Who is this Batman everyone has been talking about? Is he your king?”

“King?” Billy asks, sounding confused.

“Do you not have a king in this land?” Loki asks sounding equally confused.

“What? No! Of course we don’t have a king! Batman is Gotham’s hero. He goes around at night saving people dressed in a bat costume. Now personally, I think it’s a little silly but he does good work, he helps people.” Billy explained.

 _‘He helps people? Well, maybe he can help me get home’_ Loki thinks. He is reminded of Thor, he would definitely help a lost traveler get home. He wonders if this Batman is like Thor. He’s not sure if he wants to be around another Thor. Thor can be annoying but Loki can’t help but miss that oaf. 

“Uh ok, do you happen to know where I can find Batman?” Loki asks.

“Nope, sorry,” Billy says, shaking his head.

“That’s alright,” he turns to look at the man that's still stuck under his boot. “What do you know about Batman?” He asks the man with a curious voice. 

He knows that the man won’t answer his question but he hopes against hope that he does because if he doesn’t, he would have to do things a different way. The only other way he knows to get information from someone other than asking is a memory spell and that would take a fair amount of energy to do. He’s already used a third of his energy to shadow-walk here and he doesn’t want to waste any more energy just to get some information. Loki goes over the pros and cons of memory searching in this man’s head and realizes that the whole point of going to the museum was because he needed information. It doesn’t matter how he gets it. Judging by the way the man reacted to an unknown presence, assuming that whoever had interrupted his attempted murder was Batman and immediately starting to tremble, Loki deduces that this man has had previous encounters with Batman.

When the man only answers with a grunt Loki sighs and looks to the man. “Well, guess we’re doing this the hard way.”

Loki presses a palm to the man’s forehead and starts searching. After 10 seconds he removes his hand from the man’s now sweaty forehead. He didn’t want to search too much because the man had no personal connection to Batman, therefore he had no information on how to contact him. However, he did learn what Batman looked like and he has to admit that he is intimidating. 

Billy stares at him blankly. “What did you do?!?” He says, pointing towards the man. Loki looks down and notices that the man is trembling and crying silently. _‘Wow, this Batman person must be really scary!’_ He slides his knives back up his sleeves.

“Nothing I’m willing to explain. Thank you for the assistance Billy, you may go home now, I’m sure your family is worried for you.”

“I don’t have a family or a home,” Billy says sadly.

Inwardly Loki sighs, he does not want to hear about this boy’s life story. Though he does feel bad for him so he takes out the leather pouch he had stolen earlier and pretends that he is taking it out of his pocket. He doesn’t understand the mortal’s currency so he takes a few green rectangles and hands it to Billy. Billy’s eyes go wide so Loki guesses that it was a fair amount.

“T-Thanks sir but why would you give me so much when you don’t even know me?” Billy asks in disbelief.

Loki shrugges. “I don’t want you to get in any more trouble. Now go. He won’t hurt you anymore. I am right?” He slowly removes his foot and the man jumps up, nodding his quickly before running out of the alleyway.

“Thanks so much, I owe you my life.” Billy runs up to hug Loki and he awkwardly hugs the smaller boy in return. He had never been much of a hugger. He notices that the boy is crying so he slowly runs his hand through the boy’s hair like his mother used to do. They spend a few minutes just standing there and it dawns on Loki that he is getting slightly attached to this mortal. _‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.’_ Loki slowly pulled back from the embrace.

“It’s alright. You repaid your debt by answering my questions. Now If you don’t mind, I have to go.” 

“Thanks again, I bet if anyone else had walked by, I would be dead. I’ve never seen a kid fight like that before! Well, except for Robin of course.” Billy said matter-of-factly and Loki tilts his head.

“Who?” 

“Oh, Robin is like the coolest sidekick ever! He does the same thing Batman does but he’s a kid. He must be around the same age as you. Hey, you don’t seem to be from around here if you don’t know who Robin and Batman are.” 

Loki sighed. “ Yeah, I guess you could say that.” He didn’t know why but he felt a sudden urge to tell Billy everything. _‘No, you can’t trust anyone.’_ He told himself. Still, he did like Bily and for some reason, he wanted to see him again. Maybe he’s just lonely. _‘Of course you’re lonely, who would want to hang around with a monster?’_

“ーsee you again?” Billy was saying something. He must have gotten lost in his thoughts.

“Pardon?”

“I said: I know you have to go right now but maybe I could see you again? I could show you around the city. I know it like the back of my hand!”

He suddenly understood why he wanted to spend more time with this mortal. He saw a little of himself in Billy. He knew that Billy didn’t have a home or a family. Even though he has those things, he is far away from them. He currently has no home, no family, and no friends. Hel, he doesn’t even have any allies on this strange realm let alone friends. It would be nice to have an ally like Billy to show him around. That’s all Billy is, an ally. _‘Monsters don’t have friends. What about Amora? Is she not your friend? She is but that’s different.’_ Loki felt like there was a war in his mind. The two voices fought against each other for dominance over his opinions. He wasn't sure who was going to win and he sort of didn’t want to know. _‘Fighting with myself, I must be going mad!’_ He pushed all the voices to the deepest corner of his mind to answer Billy.

“I would love that,” Loki smiled. He decided to show a little of his magic to his new ally. He picked up a random stone and held it in his hand for a few seconds before a soft glimmer pasted through the rock. Billy’s eyes widen as he saw the magic but he did not question it “There. Now all you have to do is whisper the special words to this rock and I will know when you need me.” Loki passes the rock to the younger boy who holds it like it’s the most precious possession he has. 

“Now, I have places to be and people to find so I hope to see later.” Loki was about to walk away when he heard Billy call him.

“Wait! What’re the special words?”

“Brothers suck!” He replys. Loki smirks before disappearing in the shadows, leaving an amazed Billy standing there in awe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this! I'll probably post the next chapter in a few days.


	11. The Batman Hall of Fame+ Robin's corner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki finally gets into the museum and gathers some info about the mysterious dark night. Unfortunately, the trip to the museum doesn't end as Loki expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooooo people. Sorry, this took so long. I really don't have any excuses. I just didn't feel like writing. Anyway, here it is. A new chapter yay!

Loki was walking down the grayish pathway, heading towards the direction where the map said the museum was. He could see the tip of the building he assumed was the museum peeking out from behind the taller buildings that surrounded the area. The museum was not as tall as the buildings that were around it and it had a look to it that reminded Loki of the buildings he had seen the last time he had been on Midgard. He was still thinking about his conversation with Billy when he realized that there was a black path separating him from the museum’s entrance. 

He abruptly stopped in his tracks. He really didn’t want to get hit with another metal beast but it seemed the only way he could get to the other side. Sure he could teleport but that would just be wasting energy. He looked around to see how the mortals were crossing the path and he saw a pair of girls in clothes that would be called scandalous on Asgard walk across the black path. When he looked more carefully, he saw that they were walking on a part of the path that had white lines drawn on it. The metal beasts seemed to be stopping at the white lines. Why the creaturs were stopping was a mystery to him, not that he cared to find out. 

He walked on the white lines on the dark path, and to his utter relief, the creatures stopped for him. He made his way across the black path and as soon as he stepped onto the grey path, he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Turning to walk to the entrance Loki noticed that there was a guard standing by the entrance and the people that were heading inside had to pass through a strange device that seemed to be detecting metal. Loki frowned at the idea of not being allowed to take weapons to certain places. On Asgard, everyone old enough for warrior training usually carried around a small dagger or something at all times. It wasn’t because Asgard was a bad place. Asgard had it’s bandits and thieves like any other place, of course. People didn’t carry around weapons because they feared for their personal safety, no, it was to show that they weren’t afraid of a fight and that they were always ready for it. 

_A wise king never seeks out war. But, he must always be ready for it._

That was what his father always said to him. _‘Well, it was likely meant more for Thor, the future king,’_ but he still applied the words to his life anyway. Asgardians _usually_ didn’t look for fights but they are always ready for it. Loki needed to figure a way to get his knives past the metal detectors.

He looked over his options. The first idea that came to him was to just tuck his knives into his pocket dimension. It wouldn’t take too much seiðr to put them in the pocket dimension and take it out after he was inside. He didn’t want to be left weaponless for too long. He had seen how the people of this city looked at each other with distrustful eyes. If everyone was so on edge every hour of the day, then this must not be a very safe place to be. He could still fight without weapons but he would then show how strong he was physically and his magic would surely draw attention. Loki usually didn’t want attention as everyone else did, all he wanted was to be acknowledged for his talents and to be respected as a prince. Even though he did pretty well when all eyes were on him, he knew that he could do things better in the shadows, where he could pull strings without being seen. Right now, Loki needed to be stealthy, he knew that he was different from the mortals and people didn’t like different. He had heard tales of how Midgardians would go on witch hunts and how they would accuse people of witchcraft even though the people being accused had absolutely no magic. Loki really didn't want to cause any trouble right now…. well, that wasn’t true. He was fine with _causing_ trouble, he just didn’t want to _be_ in trouble. 

His second idea was to just sneak past the guards. It wouldn’t be too hard since the security was mediocre at best. Loki could also try to find a backdoor or something to use. Loki dismissed the idea after a few seconds, it would work but it was boring and a bored Loki was never good for anyone. Loki was starting to think about all the times he had caused trouble because he was bored and he remembered how his mother would look at him with her ‘look of disappointment’. She would of course forgive him soon after and continue on like nothing happened. Loki was starting to get really homesick even though it had only been a few hours since his fall. Loki would bet that he was still in shock and that he would feel the full effects of the past few days later, but right now he's in survival mode and he’ll keep pushing away the feeling of falling he’s been having ever since he landed on Midgard. Right now he needs a distraction to keep his mind from his spiraling thoughts.

“That’s it!” He exclaimed, earning him a few odd looks from the mortals standing in line with him.

Loki paid the stares no mind as he started to come up with another idea. He would cause a distraction and then sneak in, past the guards who would be too busy to notice him going in. Loki smirked, _‘My day is about to get more interesting’_

As he was thinking, the line had moved up quite a bit and Loki was almost at the door. He quickly started to set his plan in motion. Loki moved closer to the man standing in front of him and let the knife he had stolen from the man in the alley materialize in his hand. With a quick move, he places the knife in the pocket of the man’s jacket and steps away from the man just as he starts walking towards the metal detector.

The man starts to put all his metal possessions into a box but he doesn’t take out the knife because he doesn’t check the pocket it’s in, thinking it is empty. _‘Well, isn’t that convenient’_ Loki thought.

As the man walks through the metal detector, a loud alarm goes off and Loki tries his best to hide his smirk. He slowly sneaks around the gate, watching the man pull the knife out of his pocket. The guards immediately tense and get into a fighting stance. Loki almost scoffs at their form but catches himself before his position is noticed. The guards are amateurs compared to him. He may not be the best fighter on Asgard, but he is still good. The guards and the people waiting in line started yelling and screaming while the man just stood there confused and frozen. 

Loki easily crept past the other guards and made his way into the actual museum. Behind him, Loki could hear people shouting but he didn’t really pay attention to that as he went to the information stand. He didn’t know why he was going but his instinct told him that he would find some answers there. There were two ladies sitting behind the desk. The older one was talking to another person so he walked to the younger one. She looked like she could be in her twenties but Loki really didn’t know. _‘For all I know, she could be a child. Although, she does_ look _older than me. Whatever, it doesn’t matter as long as she can help me’_ The lady looked up from her phone as he approached. 

“Hello, is there something I can help you with?” She asked. 

Loki made sure to use the All-speak before he asked, “Hi, do you know where I can find the section about the city’s hero?” 

“Oh yeah, sure! You're talking about Batman, right?” she said in a far too cheerful tone. When Loki nodded, she grabbed a pamphlet from inside the desk and opened it to show a map of the museum. She held it up to Loki and pointed to a spot with a black bat symbol on it. “This is the Batman hall of fame section. It’s just on the second floor. You can take this map with you if that would help.” 

“Yes, I’ll take the map. Thank you.” Loki took the map and turned towards the stairs. He looked at the map as he ran up the stairs. He made it to the second floor, almost running into someone along the way. Seeing a sign pointing towards the Batman hall of fame, he walked down the hallway. _‘Hall of fame? Pff, that is such a stupid thing to have.’_ He thought as he entered a dimly lit room. There were spotlights over glass cases housing anything from a Batarang to a can filled with Joker venom. In front of the cases were boards with information about the items in the cases. There was also a corner of the room that was brightly lit with bright colors such as yellow, green, and red. It starkly contrasted with the rest of the room which was mostly black and gray. There was a sign beside the wall reading: **Robin the boy wonder!** Loki rolls his eyes. _‘It's a_ wonder _I haven't gone blind just by looking at that corner,’_ Loki thinks as he walks toward the closest board and starts reading, deciding to ignore the colorful corner for now. 

After about 20 minutes of reading mostly useless information, Loki finally knew more about the hero known as Batman. He had of course tried to find out Batman's real name and where he lives but he had found nothing. All the texts said was that Batman lived in a cave called the Batcave, which no one knew the location of. The boards mostly talked about all the times he had saved the city and all the villains he had fought. Loki had studied all the weapons that supposedly belonged to Batman and found that he quite liked the hero’s fighting style. 

Just as he was about to make his way to the Robin corner, Loki heard a loud bang! and an alarm started to go off. _‘What is this loud noise?!? It’s so annoying'_ he thought. He looked around to see what his situation was and found nothing out of the ordinary. He had no idea what the loud noise was, but he could tell that it meant trouble and not the type Loki liked to cause. 

He was heading out of the room when he heard a voice say “Awww… look at you all, looking so down and upset! Well, don’t worry! The Joker is here to turn those frowns upside down! Hahahahahaha…” 

Loki tried to look for a body to attach to the voice but found the hallway he’s in empty. He starts to get ready to disappear when he smells an odd scent in the air. It makes him feel dizzy and lose his balance, making him land hard on the floor. The world starts to go dark and the last thing he sees is a pair of black shoes and purple pants. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. IDk when the next chapter will be done soo... yeah. I think this was the longest chapter so far


	12. The 'Heroic' type

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki kicks some bad guy butt and meets our friendly neighborhood Spid-sorry-Batman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooo I have risen from the dead to post this chapter almost right before school starts. Sorry for the long wait I just wasn't really feeling this story for a while but now I an back and we'll see how long it takes to get the next chapter out.

Loki wakes up, his head feeling like it’s been stuffed with cotton. His limbs feel heavy and his mind is sluggish. He stays still on instinct, pretending to be asleep and listens to the sounds around him. He hears the shuffling of shoes. Loki assumes that they are standing guard though against what he can only guess. Batman? Maybe. He doesn’t think about it for long as his thoughts are interrupted by a manic laugh. 

Resisting the urge to sigh, Loki resolves to continue faking unconsciousness until he has a grasp of the situation and a plan of action. The laugh that continues to echo around the room leads Loki to assume that the one they call the “Joker” is responsible for his current situation if the texts he read in the museum are to be believed. Loki also has a vague memory of hearing the name just before he passed out but it was pretty fuzzy. According to the displays in the “Batman hall of fame” the Joker occasionally takes a group of people hostage to attract the attention of Batman. Loki guesses that this is what’s happening here. That means the guards are here to prevent the hostages from leaving and to defend against Batman when he inevitably comes to the rescue. 

The way he sees it, Loki has two choices, either wait for Batman to show up and rescue him along with the other hostages or he can fight his own way out. Being Princes of Asgard had led to both Loki and Thor to become familiar to being hostages especially in their younger years when they had not been able to defend themselves, so Loki knows how situations like these can be unpredictable and how someone can end up getting hurt ( _‘or dead’_ he thinks grimly) in a blink of the eye, especially with how crazy the Joker is said to be. 

As much as he would like to continue to lay here on the ground and wait (especially with the way his limbs still feel heavy) for Batman to come and rescue him as he is known to do, Loki just can’t risk the possibility of Batman not showing up. _‘Or showing up too late,’_ He thinks. For all Loki knows, the Batman could be a myth that cowardly mortals made up in hopes of coping with their pathetic, short and miserable lives. Loki knows that not all things in libraries and museums are true. After all, Loki has found many accounts of false information in Asgard’s Royal Libraries while visiting libraries in other realms and comparing the texts there to the texts back on Asgard. And despite what Billy told him about the supposed hero, Loki refuses to blindly believe in the words of someone he's just met. He doesn't consider what he saw in the man’s mind as proof of the hero's existence either, not until he sees it with his own eyes. No, Loki doesn't want to just wait for someone that might not come when he can save himself. Sure, it defeats the purpose of staying hidden and blending in and he would gain attention by fighting men that appear much stronger than him but it’s better than getting hurt (Loki internally scoffs at the idea dying at the hands of a _mortal_ so he refuses to think about it) by some puny mortal. 

Mind made up, Loki listens for a few seconds more before opening his eyes and scanning the room. He is in a large room and from what he can see, there is only one exit point. Two guards are standing by the archway that leads to the hallway outside of the room. No one has noticed that his eyes open so he looks around the room again to find more people laying on the floor next to him. He resists the urge to sigh and thinks _‘If no one else is going to save these mortals, I might as well do that too.’_

In normal circumstances, Loki would just sneak his way out or simply teleport but there are too many guards to get out unnoticed and his mind is still foggy from the gas so he can’t concentrate enough to teleport. That leaves fighting his way out, something Thor would without further thought. Now, Loki is in no way the ‘heroic' type as everyone on Asgard likes to remind him of, but he does try and help when he can. And anyway, he is a God and a Prince of Asgard ( _‘lies’_ ), the protector of the Nine Realms, it is his duty to protect those who are as helpless as these Midgardians. Yes, he is doing this because it’s his duty and no other reason… at least that’s what he tells himself. 

With that thought, he quickly gets up from his place on the floor and lunges towards the nearest guard, who is standing in a corner, taking him by surprise. He delivers a quick punch to his face that breaks his nose and knocks him out cold. Loki turns around as the guard falls to the ground, putting his back to the corner where two walls meet making it impossible to attack him from behind. When he looks up Loki sees that he is surrounded and that weapons vaguely resembling what he recognized from his previous visits to Midgard to be called ‘guns’ are pointed at him. He smirks a tiny bit, after all, Loki always likes a good challenge. Not that the mortals will be much of a challenge, no, the challenge is holding back, after all, he wouldn’t want to draw any more attention than he already is by using magic when he can do this without magic. 

He waits for the first shot to be fired before attacking. He goes through the guards with relative ease, occasionally using his two knives that were up his sleeves. He tries to use knives as sparsely as possible, he doesn’t want to kill anyone here unless absolutely necessary and Loki doesn’t really think that this situation required such extremes. 

He had taken down about half the men and though they were but mortals they still had strength in numbers and Loki’s body was still somewhat heavy from the drugs though, the adrenaline did help chase the drowsiness away. It was safe to say that Loki was currently not at his best. He had just sent a man flying through the air with a kick to the stomach when he noticed a dark shadow creeping towards the figure who was watching the fight. Loki had a sneaking suspicion that -despite his earlier doubts- the figure was the Joker and the shadow creeping ever closer to the clown was none other than the famous Batman. If Loki was to tell the truth he would say that he had been stupid and had totally forgotten about the Joker until now but since he’s a liar he told himself that he was merely waiting for Batman to come so he could deal with the clown.

Batman crept close enough to finally punch the Joker from behind, sending him tumbling to the ground, unconscious right as Loki knock the last guy out. Loki slowly turned, breathing heavily, to face the man covered in black only to find white lensed eyes staring back. 

They stared for a while longer before Batman asked ( _‘More like growled’_ Loki thought) “Who are you?” just as Loki smirked and said, “Well, that was fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you enjoyed! I didn't really read it over in my rush to get it posted so please excuse the spelling/grammar mistakes (if there are any). Thanks for the kudos! Byeeeeee..... for now MUHAHAHAHAAAAA.... Bye


	13. The Newly Discovered Pain in Batman's Ass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's see what's happening on Batsy's side of things. (he might be a _little_ lonely, he misses his Robin, okay?)

Batman was racing down the streets of Gotham, taking sharp turns and weaving through the ever-present traffic that occurred in a city so filled with life and somehow death at the same time. He was going over his plan in his head. Normally he would bounce some ideas off Robin but he was on a Team mission. He wasn’t lonely, truly he wasn’t, he had in the past and would once again take down the Joker. Robin still spends most of his time while in uniform patrolling with Batman since Team missions were few and far in between. Today is one of the rare days Robin is on a mission with the team. It’s at times like these when he makes a gruff comment and turns to the side expecting to hear a witty and sarcastic reply only to be met with silence, that he realizes how much his life has changed since he took Robin in. It’s on these days that Batman feels lonely even though he tries not to. 

He resurfaces from his thoughts and realizes that he is a block away from the museum. He slams his boot on the break and comes to a swerving stop in an alleyway. He parks the Batmobile, locks the doors, and jumps out of the car. There is a rusty fire escape ladder hanging on the nearest wall to him. Batman quickly climbs to the roofs. In minutes he is arriving at the museum, scanning the buildings. He spots a couple of Joker’s goons guarding the main entrance and a dozen GCPD police cars positioned near the entrance. He sweeps his gaze around the pool of cars, looking for a specific man. Spotting him, Batman makes a couple of small jumps to get to the ground, silently landing behind the man.

“Commissioner,” Batman said, immediately interrupting whatever the officer beside Gordon was saying to him. 

“Oh, Batman! You’re here! I’ll get to the point, the Joker’s been reported to have 20 people hostage. There could be more but we don’t know.”

“Has there been any negotiations to see what he wants?” The Crusader asked, already anticipating the answer.

“He said he wants you, Batman.” And his suspicions were confirmed. The Joker, unlike some other Gotham baddies, didn’t do hostage situations to gain money (most of the time). The Joker’s goal was to either “put on a show” or “have fun with Batsy” or both. Gordon continued, tugging Batman from his thoughts. “He’s got all the entrances blocked or guarded and has threatened to kill hostages if an officer tries to enter the building.” 

“I will get in the building and handle the Joker.” With that statement, he melted back into the shadows and quickly thought of a plan.  
If Robin were here, Batman would have sent him in as a distraction while he snuck around and knocked people unconscious, but since he was not, the Crusader would have to get by with no distractions. _‘Shouldn’t be hard, I’ve done this a thousand times before’_ He thought.  
Deciding that since all the ground entrances were blocked, the best way in would be through the glass roof he knew the museum had. Dick had told him all about it and how stupid it was to put a glass roof on a building “when you know there’s a man dressed as giant bat running around town,” Dick had gone on a field trip to the museum with his school just last week so the details about the building’s descriptions were fresh in his mind. 

Scaling the museum wall, Batman put all non-mission related thoughts away. Reaching the roof, he walked around, peering through the glass to find which room the Joker and the hostages were in. He was assuming they were in the same room because Joker would want to be there when Batman arrived to have some leverage over him. 

Finding the room relatively quickly, Batman takes a moment to observe the room and the situation. The hostages are all laying on the ground in a messy line. They don’t seem to be restrained so obviously, the Joker had drugged them and isn’t expecting them to wake up anytime soon. The clown himself is standing on the opposite side of the room and is laughing maniacally. At what, no one knows, probably not even Joker himself. His partner in crime, Harley Quinn is nowhere to be seen, so either she’s hiding somewhere else or she’s not here. Batman makes a note to keep an eye out for her just in case. 

Just as Batman is about to open the skylight and make his entrance, he hears the sound of a punch and bones breaking. Leaning back to reassess the situation, he looks at the side of the room where the hostages were. Moving his white lensed eyes to a corner where a goon had been previously standing guard, he notices the source of the commotion.

Standing in front of the goon’s body was a boy, about a few inches taller than Robin. He looked back at the hostages and noticed that there were only 19 instead of the 20 that were there when he looked the first time. Turning back to the boy, he took in the details of his clothing. The boy was wearing a green hoodie, black pants, and boots that reach to below his knees. Suddenly, his mind made a connection between this boy and the incident earlier with the car. This must be the boy that the witnesses were describing. Batman didn’t know how he had made the connections but he had long ago learned to trust his instincts. 

He watched the boy turn around, only to find all the other goons’ guns trained on him. He kept an eye on the situation as he started to break the lock on the skylight. All his attention snapped back to the fight, because yes it had turned into a fight. Clearly, the boy had been waiting for the first shot to go off because after that the room descended into chaos as the boy lunged after goons and knocked them out. 

Even though the boy seemed to know how to fight, Batman still had to intervene to save the other hostages and catch the Joker as it seemed that the boy had forgotten about the clown. 

Finally getting the skylight open, the Dark Knight jumped down and landed silently near the farthest wall from where the fight was taking place. He decided that he should take care of the clown as the boy seems to be fine with knocking out the goons for now. The Joker was easy to sneak up on, he was standing in a corner watching the fight with an excited gleam in his insane eyes, clearly intrigued and entertained by the show. With a quick punch, the Joker was sent to the ground out cold. It almost felt too easy, but he tried not to be too paranoid as he was told he usually was. 

Attention turned back to the fight, he realized that the boy had taken out about half of the goons with no visible serious injuries acquired. The boy turns away from the goon he had just knocked out to Batman as he approached. The goons seemed to be trying to make their minds on whether they should stay and continue fighting or run away. Seeing the pause in the fight, Batman took the opportunity to gather some information about the boy. 

“Who are you?” Batman growled out in his dark voice that has been known to scare grown men.

“Well, that was fun.” The boy smirked at the same time he asked his question.

Already, Batman knew that this boy was going to be trouble and most likely a pain in his ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, I totally forgot about this story. I am very sorry. I kinda lost motivation and kept putting off writing this chapter because I have no idea where to take this story. Since I wrote this chapter so long after previous chapters, there might be some discrepancies. Let me know if you find something that doesn't match up and I'll fix it. If you have any ideas on where this story should go, I would love to hear them. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take so long to write but no promises. (I'm not abandoning this fic yet, I have hope that something will come to me)


End file.
